Trading a God Killer for a Legend
by riah alice drake
Summary: A Happy New Year One Shot.
1. New Year Old Love

She was running late. She hadn't meant to stay so late looking over the plans for a new realm charter for one of the newer additions to the U.R.

The party seemed to be in full swing at the diner as far as she could hear it from down the block having opted to stretch her legs after sitting for so long instead of using magic to get there faster.

Also, she wanted to make a little detour as well before putting in an appearance for her friends and family's sake then turning in for the night.

"One more year without you." She sighs kneeling in front of the grave brushing a few dead leaves away that had caught on the engraved name on the stone. "and another one just on the horizon." She whispers tracing her fingers in the lion that she'd first seen inked on the forearm of a stranger through the hazy glass of a pub window.

"One of the worst pains a mortal can endure." A voice behind her interrupts making the Queen spin around in the quiet of the churchyard in the growing darkness. The man doesn't seem fazed by the growing ball of fire in the startled woman's outstretched hand. "The lose of what can only be called their soul mate." The unnamed continued taking a knee a few feet away from Regina.

"What would you know about lost?" Regina questioned turning back to the grave while still being hyperaware of the man behind her.

"We should move away for a few moments. Give them some form of privacy." He says his voice just above a whisper as he holds out a hand to Regina already on his feet at her side before the Queen of the Realms is aware he's moved. "We'll not go far, Regina." He promises startling her by saying her name as if they were somehow close friends when she'd only met him moments before.

It was only when they are safely out of sight behind another row of stones that Regina sees her niece and her new fiancée winding their way between the headstones.

"Shouldn't we be going to Granny's?" Alice asks apparently not realizing just where the two were, but Robin shakes her head tightening her hold around her fiancée's hand as they walked even pulling their interlocked hands up to press a kiss against the back of Alice's then let their hands drop back to swing lightly between them in the coming darkness. "We will but first I want to introduce you to someone very important to me."

Regina starts to speak but her companion puts a finger to his lips to quiet her the pair move so softly Regina would have sworn they had levitated from the ground to another hiding place as the couple stops in front of the stone they needed.

"Well, I thought that it was only far that since I've gotten to meet your dad-." Robin doesn't finish her thought, but she doesn't need to.

Regina feels more tears stinging her eyes, but she blinks them away not wanting to cry in front of the unknown man still resting a hand against her arm keeping her away.

Robin lets out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding slowly while also leaning against Alice's side feeling the other woman's arm slide around her waist giving her the strength she needed to keep her tears in check just a little while longer before she speaks again her eyes locked on the beautiful blue she loves so much. "Tower Girl this is my Dad. The original Robin Hood." Then to the grave marker, she whispers a shaky "Dad this is my fiancée Alice Jones."

Regina felt her own emotions threatening to give herself away when Alice gave a shy "Pleasure to finally meet you sir" to the white stone in front of the pair. The former villainess was ashamed to say that she didn't catch on to the shaking in her niece's shoulders until Alice whispered a pained "Oh Nobin." And pulled the crying other women in for a comforting hug.

"Not yet." The man at her side whispers the hand against her arms tightening.

Regina throws off his hand wanting to say that her niece rarely cries even in public since she turned six so to see her crying so freely now and from obvious upset was cause for serious consoling and not just from Alice. "Trust me child." The voice in her head says as her eyes meet her companion's only for him to node over to the couple.

The flower Robin was now holding had to be Alice's doing as they couple talked in tones to low for Regina to catch as they stood facing each other now instead of the grave their foreheads resting against one another and Alice's arms slung around Robin's waist cradling her as they swayed on the spot.

It doesn't take long before Robin is nodding in agreement to something Alice has suggested, and the pair makes to leave pausing to whisper a tender "We'll come back soon" to the grave. Yet they don't make it more than seven steps away when Robin is turning back looking from the flower in her fingers to the gravestone and back again.

The tears Regina had been holding back spill over when the daughter kneels in front of her father's headstone the flower pressed along her trembling lips as she whispers to it letting a few of her tears fall onto the petals before she presses a final kiss against the flower head and places it against the grassy base of the gravestone.

Alice it there to help her up her arms sliding once again around Robin's waist letting her fiancée lean against her side as they headed back along the path between the headstones.

Regina and her companion watch them go only stepping out from the shadows of the tree when the couple as turned the corner and had crossed to the opposite side of the street only to stop under the glow of the streetlight to share a sweet looking kiss before heading off down the sidewalk hand in hand.

"The final pieces to the puzzle."

The words startled the dazed queen back to where she was standing. "Put that down or I roast your hand off." She threatens already feeling the sparks of fire growing in her palm the longer the clean-shaven man cradles the flower her niece had just left in his hands.

He agrees for the most part taking only a single flower petal and one of the thorns from the plant's stem both of which he placed into an old whiskey bottle. "How did you get that?"

The still unnamed man was again unfazed by the venom in the voice as he finished replacing the flower beside the grave as the bottle starts to glow in his grip showing off the other thing it contains. The last remaining shard of the crystal that destroyed the man Regina Mills loved. "We only need one last thing to make this worth it." Is all he says by way of an answer gesturing to Regina herself as he spoke. "You're necklace please." He says holding out his hand.

Regina blinks her hand reaching up to close around the thing defensive. "Excuse me?"

"Unless you want your love to come back without his legendary accuracy skills, I'm going to need that arrow feather if you please." He answers as if it were obvious without dropping his outstretched hand. "Its nearly midnight we're running out of time."

Regina pulls out her phone to check the time just to be sure. He's right it's now less than five minutes until the new year.

"Look even for Gods it's hard to bring someone back from oblivion but somehow we've managed it now please Regina hand over that feather before this is all for nothing."

The Good Queen feels her hands move on their own while her mind is slower on taking in what he just said. Yet before she can take back what she'd done the last remaining thing Robin had given her had dissolved right before her eyes along with the rest of the strange concoction now glowing a warm golden color.

"Stand back." He warns making Regina's teeth snap together audibly when he digs around in the earth covering her Robin's grave despite him only going deep enough to bury the bottle. "Time?" he asks once the dirt it replaced as if the defilement had never happened.

Regina barley hears his question but somehow, she responds "one minute." Her anger builds the longer he just stands there smiling in some weirdly proud way when she has just lost something more precious to her than the saddle ring Daniel had given her to serve as an engagement ring all those years ago. She's already advancing on him giving in to that little pocket of darkness she's still carried since 'splitting' her heart with her more darker self.

"Regina?"

The fire both in her hand and her heart are blown out at the sound of her name coming from those lips. She wishes it were lighter outside just to prove to herself that its not a trick even though she keeps her back to him facing the still smirking face of the supposed God in front of her.

"Regina." Her archer says again closer this time.

It's not until she feels his touch against her arm as if he's assuring himself, she's real as well that she trusts herself to turn around to face him. As soon as she sees he is in fact solidly standing behind her, she pulls him in by the lapels of his jacket needing to feel his lips back on her own one more time before this amazing dream of hers ends.

The wave of magic that hums just below the surface of the second kiss the two share when the first had been cut short by the annoying need for air isn't lost on the former villainess but for once she can't find it in herself to care much losing even more of herself in the heat of the deepening kiss.

"Emma Swan isn't the only one in this realm that deserves her happy ending." Zeus says with a shrug as soon as the couple can take a long enough break from sharing kisses to look over at him. "Yours just took a little while longer to happen." He says sound somewhat apologetic about the matter.

"What's the catch." Regina answers keeping her arms tightly wrapped around Robin's waist just as tightly as her archer is holding onto her. At that, the king of the Gods shook his head "No catch. The only price to this magic is trading a God killer for a Legend. A fair trade I'd say."

The man is gone by the time the couple thinks to look at anything other than each other as they thought it over.

"I have a party to go to. Want to come with me?"

Robin's smile makes her heat rate pick up along with the brush of his lips against her own once more. His mouth tastes like hints of whiskey and the musk of the deep forests. "I would be honored to my Queen." He says with a small bow. "Shall we?" he asks as he straightens up offering his arm to her with that cocky grin she was more than pleased to see had been passed to his daughter when she takes the offering looping her arm with his.


	2. When Father meets Daughter

"She's engaged now actually." Regina confesses with pride their talk having moved on from the topic of her being elected Queen of the U.R. to what had become of his little girl since his death before remembering that to her newly returned love his 'little daisy' was still supposed to be in diapers and just starting to try out solid foods.

"But to a Jones? I mean honestly Regina. You and Zelena had to let her fall in love with the pirate's daughter?" Robin complained running his hand over his scruffy bearded face.

"Says the outlaw that fell in love with one of the worst Queens in all the Enchanted Forest." Regina answers with a playful smirk while Robin grumbles at the shot the woman at his side made at his ribs during the tease. When she sees that he is about to keep arguing on this line she pulls them to a stop across the street from their destination.

"I know it must be unsettling for you considering that particular pirate's history, but Robin is her own woman, so she can fall in love with whomever she wants," Regina defends in a low voice. There is a fire in her eyes that any other time would have the archer stealing his queen away to the closest bed or a few times during their stay in Camelot the closest dark corner for a less than child-friendly kissing session.

"Sure, I'll admit that Alice may be a little odd at times." Regina keeps venting bringing Robin back from those kinds of thought for the time being as his eyes refocus on his love's face. "but it was clear from the start to not only me but to Zelena as well that Robin loves her just as much as you love me or as much as Snow loves her shepherded prince or how much our resident cape wearing wolf loves that munchkin saving farm girl of hers."

Robin has the same stunned look at the name that Regina has once she realizes what the archer had just said that had started her on her little mini rant. "Zelena actually let you name her daughter after me?" he asks just as Regina says, "How did you know Robin's fiancée was a she or that she was Hook's daughter?" Regina was positive she hadn't told him either of those bits of information just yet.

"Didn't she bring her to see me earlier?" Robin asks searching his hazy memories as if trying to somehow remember something in a newly had dream. "She wanted to even the score because she'd already met Alice's father." He summarized almost positive that although he had never properly met them, he could hear their voices in his head talking not only to him but to one another as well.

"Do you remember anything before that?" Regina wonders remembering more than a few nights she'd gone down to the grave needing some kind of comfort from her rouge when sleep was out of the question.

Robin had stopped in his tracks and at first it was because Regina thought he was remembering something else about his 'life' before he'd come back to her. They had crossed to the start of the outside patio in front of the crowded diner reminding her of that fleeting moment they had together before 'Marion' came back into their lives.

"Is that her?" It takes a few seconds for Regina to see just what he was looking at in the revelry going on in the diner. "Regina is that my daughter?" he helpfully clarifies tilting his chin rather than pointing at her not that Regina needed him to now she knew who had pulled his attention from her.

Her niece had maneuvered her way over to the table the Charming's and Zelena where sitting at just inside the view from the window still twirling a dart between her fingers as she picked up the cup Zelena had just slid over to the end of the table at her approach both mother and daughter now laughing at something Snow had just said.

"Are you ready?" Regina whispered feeling the little start her archer makes in surprise as if he'd forgotten she was beside him the longer he looked over his grown daughter seeming to be arguing with her mother "That's the Jones girl she's promised to?" he asks pointing toward to the giggling woman who's lap his little flower was sitting across as it was her throne nuzzling her face against the other woman's shoulder affectionately while the Jones girl keeps trying to play mediator between the bickering pair when her pirate father joins in on whatever they are talking about. "That's her." Regina nodes rolling her eyes at the childlessness of her sister and her niece in the quick glance she'd thrown at the window before someone moves in front of them blocking their view. "And her name is Alice." She adds checking her phone again for a clock. "seven seconds." She whispers tugging her Robin along with her as she headed to the front door of the unofficial yet official heart of Storybrooke.

Zelena spots them first- well Regina first- Locksley (her Robin) having hung back just outside the door to collect his thoughts before the big meeting with his now grown daughter. "Gina. What kept you?" her sister scolds pulling Regina in for a greeting hug. The green apple martini she'd managed to sneak in slashing just a bit in her other hand. "Come on the gangs been waiting." She says gesturing back to the table.

Mulan and Merida have taken Snow and David's places at the table with the Scottish woman draped across the warrior woman's lap much like Robin was with Alice. "So, seems like those two finally stopped being so thick." Regina notices sending the newly made couple a smile before they returned to talking amongst themselves. "Yeah, but it also means that Alice won the pool." Zelena sighs taking another sip of her drink.

Regina looks around spotting her sneaky archer maneuvering passed Ruby and Dorothy and Leroy and Nova both couples seeming to be in worlds of their own making while they talked to their significant other and even in both cases stealing a kiss or two while they talked making both Regina and Locksley smile to see.

"Come on love there is only…." The one the father knows to be Alice sulks as he moves closer nearly hits him with her elbow when she moves to check her phone for the time before returning to pout at his grinning daughter sitting beside her. "two more seconds left. I think that deserves a proper kiss."

"That was a real kiss." His daughter teases pressing another kiss against her fiancée's cheek just to annoy her more.

He has to say that the smile his daughter gives the aggravated woman sitting beside her proves that she is, in fact, his daughter but the taunting glint in her eyes was all from her mother. "You're wicked." Alice grumbles into her drink as if reading the father's thoughts at the moment as she drains her glass.

"Never said I wasn't." his namesake grinned taking the glass out of Alice's hand to finish it off herself while the rest of the diner finishes counting down to the new year around them.

Locksley averted his eyes at the not so innocent yet still sweet kiss the two were now sharing the glass having been abandoned on the counter beside them as their arms snaked around the other's neck or in Alice's case around his daughter's waist pulling her impossibly closer when the kiss started to turn into something more.

"Happy New Year Nobin." Alice murmurs when the pair parted for air their foreheads resting together as they stayed wrapped in the other.

"Happy New Year Tower Girl."

The legend was about to speak up when Alice spoke again this time reaching back behind the counter for two more glasses. True the one she had was smaller to the one that had been used to bring him back, yet it warmed his newly restored heart to see the mix of pain and joy the sight of the bottle she pulled from her jacket pocket brought his daughter "For your Papa." Alice says pouring a generous amount of the smuggled in liquor into each glass then sliding one over toward her fiancée.

It's when she's starting to speak after they have clinked glasses that her eyes find his over Alice's shoulder making her grip loosen on the glass in her surprise causing it to fall from her hand missing the counter entirely to smash onto the floor instead.

The room quiets in seconds every eye turning toward the sound even Alice seems surprised by the slip if her hands flying to his daughter's trembling arm was any indication after hastily setting her own glass on the counter. Not that that meant Robin's eyes ever dropped from her father's.

"Hello, peanut." The greeting is just audible yet seemed to be as loud as cannon fire in the stillness of the diner the longer father and daughter held the others gaze.

"Robin."

The father had reacted on instinct his hand resting briefly against Alice's arm to guide her out of his way so he could be the one to catch his little girl before she could hit the ground in her how unconscious state what he hadn't counted on was just how quick his daughter's chosen bride was simultaneously steadying his little girl with an arm around her waist letting the fainting taller woman fall in against her side while her other arm flew backwards towards his advance causing her elbow to slam into Locksley's face hard enough that he felt his nose brake and start to bleed from the power behind the action.

Regina stepped in only to be sent reeling by her own sister after a painfully asked "How could you?" giving the rest of the diner time to close ranks around the unconscious younger archer and her seething fiancée.

"Zelena." Locksley scolded letting his free arm drape across Regina's shoulders as his right-hand holds his bleeding nose. "I'm alright." His queen soothed cupping the underside of his jaw in her hand ignoring the sting in her own from her sister's slap. "Are you…." Regina starts to ask making her alive again archer chuckle in answer.

A sound all in attendance wasn't all to upset at hearing again even if meant that whatever dark magic used to revive the dead man would inevitably bring something else horrible their way.

"Well, I can say one thing. That daughter of mine can pick them." He confesses wincing as he resets his own nose back into place.

"I'm sorry but are we just going to gloss over the fact you've gone dark again?" Zelena states

"She didn't go dark Zelena. Zeus and our daughter brought me back not Regina."

"That can't be possible Robin doesn't even have her magic anymore." Zelena countered the legend filing that bit of information away for a later discussion "Peanut made a wish about wanting me to be there when she gets married and I guess it was just strong enough to find what was left of my soul so the Gods could send me back to her."

There was a long pause while the information sunk in only to be broken by a shakily whispered "You have to admit Mom it's not the craziest explanation we've had in this town."


	3. An Ice Creamy Confession

Given how defensive she had been they expected Alice to be yelling at them to keep their distance when they reached the corner the voice had come from. Instead, it was Leroy kneeling beside the younger archer with a soft "Easy sister." As he helps her stand his brothers closing in when Locksley tried to move closer to help as she's led toward one of the surprisingly empty booths near the jukebox.

"Thanks, Chad." Robin whispers when a man Locksley didn't know is let passed the human blockade taking the seat that should have been his across from the shaking young woman. "This should help." Chad says his tone gentle as he sets a bottle of orange soda in front of her even adding a straw for good measure. "Slow drinks please." Zelena instructs with a grateful smile. "Thanks, darling." She adds when he slides a second apple martini over to her.

Rather than argue Robin drinks her eyes flickering between her father as if making sure he was still there as her mind clears then back to the table sliding more against the wall when Leroy shakes his head when Locksley tries to take another step closer.

"Don't." Leroy grunts ignoring the glare Regina sent him his eyes trained on Locksley nodding instead to the table directly across from them instead. An offer Locksley takes when his knees threaten to buckle under him when yet again his eyes find his daughter's seeing her mouth a weak 'hi' around her drinking straw looking more as she had before she fainted.

"She'll be back soon." Zelena says at her daughter's unspoken question as her eyes go from her misty-eyed fathers to the jacket Grumpy draped across her shoulders when she shivers again thanks to getting the booth right under the cooling vent. "Once she knew you were alright Nova said she needed to step out for a few minutes on an errand and Alice needed some air, so we talked her into going with her."

Robin nodes taking another sip of her drink pulling Alice's now favored oversized jacket tighter across her shoulders grateful for the lingering warmth it provided her eyes once again finding her fathers then moving to her mothers. "I want to talk to him."

Regina's felt Lockley's hand tighten in her own at the childlike hope in her voice as she spoke.

"She has a right to talk with him Kels." Chad jumps in before Archie could speak both men seeing that Zelena is going to put up a fight as the rest of the diner went back to pretending as if they weren't eavesdropping on the reunion.

Locksley decides that while he might not know this man very well, just yet he likes him. "Before I met this one, I worked as a lawyer and most of the cases my firm dealt with were messy custody fights." The man explains pressing a kiss against the top of Zelena's head bringing what was at least to Locksley an uncharacteristic blush to the red hair woman's cheeks.

Another time Locksley will laugh at the irony of his no doubt rebellious daughter having a lawman as a stepfather and going by the smirk on her lips his peanut is thinking the same thing as she slides passed Leroy out of the booth.

"I'm hungry."

The comment hadn't been what Locksley had expected to hear the first time his daughter spoke to him but since she was currently standing beside him holding out her hand for him to take, he wasn't about to complain. "Ice cream?"

There it was that spark of mischief in her eyes that seems to ground him as he takes her hand in his own letting her pull him up. He also wishes he had a camera to capture the warmth in her smile at his agreeing "that sounds perfect."

"Nope nope nope not you two." Chad scolds in a low voice when both Regina and Zelena make to follow them to the door. "She's a big girl. She can take care of herself." He adds with a teasing wink in Robin's direction that makes her roll her eyes with an annoyed "Shut up lawman." keeping a tight hold on her father's hand as the door swings closed.

"Toto no." Robin says after a few minutes walking not that Locksley really noticed the terrier in the first place with his grown daughter still wanting to hold his hand out in public. "No buddy, I'm fine this is just my dad he's not going to hurt me." She soothes at the worried yep the dog makes in Locksley's direction as he continues to pad after then down the sidewalk. Without letting go of his hand Robin kneels letting the dog come closer earning little growl from the dog until she notices out of the corner of her eye that her father has also crouched down the hand not in her own outstretched for the disbelieving animal to sniff.

Once the pup has deemed him trustworthy, Toto leans his head into Locksley's palm much to the adoration of his daughter. "See told you." She joked pressing a kiss against the top of his head. "Now go back to Dorothy I'm sure she misses you."

Her father stands first helping her stand with an unsure "Still up for that ice cream…" only for him to stop before saying her name as his hands drops from hers to slide into his pants pockets instead as if he was looking for something.

"Margot….just call me Margot." She says guessing that her father was having trouble saying his own name while they talked as she nodes in answer to the question, but he shakes his head as the pair start walking again this time "I would but Margot isn't your name Peanut it's just what a curse said it was."

Robin feels happy tears sting her eyes at his words but wills herself not to cry choosing instead to rest her head against his shoulder as they cross the street heading in the direction of the ice cream shop.

Turns out Locksley had been looking for his wallet earlier only a little put out when his daughter had to pay for their ice creams instead of paying himself.

It wasn't until they'd stopped under the glow of a street lamp after stopping for a round or two playing on the swings while they enjoyed their ice creams that Locksley realized why the jacket his namesake is wearing under the one Leroy had given her back at the diner was so familiar to him as she strips off the army green when the heat starts to get to her.

Why the faded gray leather looked so much like the jacket he'd been wearing moments before in Regina's office before Hades murdered him. It wasn't because it was simply the same brand as the one he was currently wearing thanks to coming back in the clothes he died in rather than the ones Regina had had him buried in- his favored Sherwood forest hunting gear- It was because it _**was**_ the one he'd been wearing that day the only real difference is hers has a more well-worn aged look than his.

Robin obviously saw he recognized it bringing another sad smile to her lips as she pulls at the zipper up to match her father's. "This is actually the first thing I ever stole. I was five playing hide and seek with Neal at Aunt Regina's. It was hidden at the back of her closet." She says in pride taking back what's left of her ice cream cone. "I've kept it close ever since. Its even survived a curse. Not that Margot knew why it was so special to her." she laughed without humor

"Everyone thinks I was too young." Robin says her fingers playing with the fraying cuff on one of the sleeves as she starts walking again this time leading them toward the forest instead of back toward town as she licks at the last of her ice cream. "that I didn't see what happened so by default I wouldn't have those memories of Hades taking you away from Aunt Regina. Away from me."

The knife twisted in farther into his restored heart as the crushing realization hit before her conforming words left her lips as she finished the last bite of the cone. "But everyone is wrong."

Robin could see her father's heart breaking in his eyes as her hand slides back into his guiding him along after his legs stopped working properly making them stop in the start of an unmarked path.

"I remember it all."


End file.
